wish to have attached to each thing found a card, with a descrip- 

 tion on one side of the place where found, name of townland, parish, 

 barony, and county, and the name of the engineer by whose care 

 and attention it has been collected ; and on the other side of the 

 card a description of the precise locality, the material in which 

 imbedded, its depth, allusion to other antiquities found with it, 

 and such other matters of interest as occur to you to record. With 

 these views, and especially that of identification with the locality, 

 as in a very remarkable and permanent way illustrating the local 

 and general history of the country, you will readily perceive the 

 importance of collecting and forwarding everything found, even 

 though there be several of the same kind ; as, looking forward to a 

 classification in localities, they will illustrate the universality or 

 otherwise of certain practices, and confirm or confute historical 

 manuscripts, poems, &.c. If with the articles collected you will, in 

 addition to the cards, forward a letter or brief paper descriptive of 

 them, with a catalogue, and any facts, opinions, or traditions con- 

 nected with the neighbourhood where they have been found, you 

 will confer additional advantage on the public ; and care will be 

 taken to have your paper recorded, and its statements brought 

 before the Academy. In cases where islands of artificial construc- 

 tion, raths, or other works, have been discovered or cut into, 

 descriptive drawings and sections will be of the greatest importance, 

 and you are requested to forward them." 



" You will understand this letter as referring also to all officers 

 in your department who may have collected any such articles, and 

 with whom I may have omitted to communicate. It is so palpably 

 better for the interest of all that the articles found should be depo- 

 sited in a great national museum, with the names of the collectors 

 recorded, than to have a few scattered articles possessed by indivi- 

 duals, and ultimately lost, — it is so clearly our duty as public offi- 

 cers to have the collection so deposited, — that I place entire reliance 

 in your using your influence to collect and forward everything that 

 has and shall be found." 



To that circular there has been a cheerful and satisfactory re- 

 sponse on the part of the engineers who have been successful in 

 making collections ; and I now proceed to present the collections 

 received, and to furnish such information as has been afforded. 



[Mr. Mulvany then exhibited the antiquities presented (vide 

 pages liii to lxvi.) and read the following extracts from letters 

 received in reply to his circular.] 



c2 



